When All Else Fails...

Make macaroons!

You know, we've been cutting some serious hours lately. Between new products, our new site and the pop up market, things have been pretty up in the air for us. I have to admit that today I am completely and utterly shattered and not really feeling myself. The best thing to do in times like these? Bake something bad ass.

We've been really fortunate over the past year; we've had our tote bag in Vogue Bambini, our pencils featured in Biba Magazine and our tutorials shared in several print publications and on lots of incredible websites. We got the chance to create an amazing window display for Coco's and launch Goodie Goodness (something I'm going to post about soon), and, most importantly, we've had the chance to meet and work with some fabulous makers.
When things are getting you down, I think the best thing to do is list out all your achievements and things you hope to achieve in the future.I've made a cuppa and a cracking batch of my favourite sweet treats. Looking back over all these incredible feats does make me feel incredibly proud and a lot better.  It's really easy to dwell on nonsense when things get tough, but you never know what's around the corner.

So now what? Find a challenge and take the plunge. What have you got to loose? Today I took a big step out of my comfort zone and hopefully it'll pay off. If it doesn't then it's not the end of the world; it's the trying that counts. People don't get anywhere if they don't take the risks, right?

So if you're having a difficult week, take a moment and stick your oven on. Bake, write your list and work out what challenge you're going to set yourself to get past the nonsense. If nothing else, you'll have a killer batch of macaroons to console yourself in...

Here's to you!

Oh Snap! Photo's From Our Week

This week I thought I would share a few snaps from our mini road trip! As you know we've been working away at this website so it was really nice to go out for a drive and get some fresh air. We went to the beach and got donuts from Krispy Kreme, which is possibly the best combination for a day ever! I also spotted this amazing Liquor sign which made me very happy... It's not often you can pretend you're in America when you're in Scotland after all! 

Now On Facebook!

It's finally happened! Vivid Please are now officially on Facebook! We've been debating whether or not to join for some time as I don't really use it very often myself, but we figured it would be a fun new way to share all the news and events we have coming up. Trouble is, we currently have only 1 friend who likes us! Although this is mighty hilarious for now, I foresee it effecting our moral in the very near future. If you like us, please LIKE US on Facebook. I promise I wont annoy you very often... just when we have a new giveaway or something totally killer to share ;)

Make our day and like our Facebook page here
Thanks so much lovely!

In other news, we announced the winner of our last giveaway as Robin who now has a very exciting email in her inbox. We're also super close to finishing our new website so hopefully everything will be going back to normal on our blog in the next few days!
We also had a totally fabulous day at the Pop Up Market at Sofi's yesterday. A massive thank you to everyone who made the effort to drop by :D We've got a few more events lined up in the near future... which we can't wait to share with you on facebook! hee hee :P

New Products: iPhone Cases, Prints & Limited Editions

Holy mac n cheese! Check out all the new products we've just added to our online store! We're totally and utter super-duper over the moon to launch our new line of iPhone cases, prints and cards. Don't they look magnificent?! 

We couldn't be more proud of our new iPhone covers in particular - we've been working on them for a little while and it's been so hard keeping the secret! Now my only problem is which one to have on my phone each day ;) We have 3 AWESOME designs available for the iPhone 4/4s and iPhone 5: 

Watermelon           Kitty Cat           Donuts

From today until the 25th August you can snap one up at our introductory price of £12 each. That's a total steal! If you want in you better get in there fast as we only have a few going!

We've added several new prints and a whole bunch of lovely new keepsake cards which are defo going to bring a smile. The Twistee Treat is a real ice cream shop in America that totally stole my heart! It's not possible to have this print on your wall and not smile. I know that for sure - he is pride of place in our studio!

We're also massively excited about our new line of vintage Batman cards. These are original bubblegum cards from the 1960s and they are one of a kind! As we're using the real trading cards there is only one of each available. We've got 8 in the shop at the moment, but we'll be releasing more once they've gone. As I say, no two are the same (literally - we only have one of each trading card!) so if you're big on Cat Woman or fancy giving your brother the Umbrella Duel card where Batman fights the Penguin you'd better snap it up! Each card is blank inside for your own message too - I know, they're totally genius ;)

shop online

We'd love to hear what you think of all our new products! 

Which is your favourite?

Pop Up Shop! Sofis Bar, Edinburgh, 25th Aug

We're taking part in a pop up shop in Sofis bar this Sunday! If you're oot and aboot in Edinburgh and looking for a cute little bar with some awesome local designers showing off a little taster of what they make and do you should defo pop in! 

Sofis Bar 

65 Henderson Street (Leith by the shore), Edinburgh

25th August, 2pm-7pm

*Free Entry*

How exciting! Be sure to say hey if you pop in - we'd love to meet you :D 

Hope to see you there!

xox

P.S

Can't make it but love our products? Don't panic! You still have a little time left to enter our big giveaway! It's jam packed full of treats and treasures and looking for a good home :D

enter here

Full Steam Ahead!

This week David and I have gone into hiding to work on our new website! We're hoping to have it up and running asap... But I'll be sure to keep you updated. In the meantime our blog posts may be a little on the sporadic side of things, but it'll be worth the wait when we're finally up to speed :D We've got coffee & donuts on tap and a killer playlist from our teenage days on the go. Good times & happy days!

Style Me Friday...

brown eyed girl

                                    dress: modcloth                      music: she & him
                                    bag: asos                                bike ring: claireabellemakes   
                                    necklace: oliver bonas            nail varnish: topshop
                                    perfume: benefit

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DIY Confetti With Envelope Template

July and August definitely seem to be the months for big parties, don't they? It's weddings and birthdays a-go-go for us at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm absolutely loving it! This week I thought I would share how to make your own confetti - remarkably handy I'll have you know - and a cute little envelope to go with it. Good times in a packet!

Confetti is the party accessory that's totally underrated if you ask me. Look at how happy it is! And it's pretty planet friendly ... well, as much as anything is these days. All you need is a circle punch (or hole punch if you're wanting mini confetti!) and a bunch of cute coloured tissue paper. 

I've found the best way to make it is to fold up the tissue paper so you have several layers and punch it like that. If you did it one circle at a time you'd be there for weeks, plus I noticed my circle punch doesn't like stupidly thin layers. Fair game!

When it comes to colours, the more the merrier! Use cupcake cases to contain (and even separate), them as you go. 

Now for the envelope. I've created a basic envelope template for you to use as guidance for the shape. Download the file below and print it out. You could technically get two of these on a sheet of A4 if you wanted to. I would say it's handy to print it out on paper and use it to draw out your own template from card as it'll be handy for future projects and save you a load of envelope money :) 

-- download envelope template here--

So, get download the file from the above link (still using this random upload site for now - let me know if you have any issues!), and print it out. I've decided to go with a see through envelope, so I have used grease-proof (or parchment) paper. You can use the template to draw out envelops with any kind of paper or newspaper, so go wild :D 

Fold the two long flaps together and stick shut with some double sided sticky tape or a thin layer of glue. Then fold up the base flap and stick shut. Lovely!

Add in a bucket load of your handmade confetti and seal shut. I've closed mine with a nice piece of washi tape because washi tape makes everything better :) 

If you're feeling adventurous you can make your own cover labels or use a stamp and create some cute stickers if you want to personalise them. Another thing that looks lovely is using a wide washi tape and cutting one end like a ribbon and wrap it around the top (see first image). Not only will that seal the packet closed but it'll finish it off beautifully.

Now all you need is a celebration to throw them at... or maybe you just want to celebrate your morning coffee ;)

Enjoy!
xox

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Oh Snap!

Happy Wednesday lovelies! Here's a little peek at the things that have been inspiring us this week. Bit of a mish-mash from my camera phone; I have about 2 billion I want to share from our trip still! Hope you like em...

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Cake and other things...

Today I woke up with an insane urge to make cake, so I didn't have any other option than to hop to it! I decided to make things a little more interesting by mixing the cake batter with a little food dye to make it pastel pink. In for a penny, in for a pound after all! They're a little reward for us both as we've been working quite a lot the past couple of days on a few new bits and pieces for the shop. Actually, we have a whole new product on its way (eeep! So exciting! Updates soon...) But we've also been making some little stickers and fliers to brighten up the orders placed in our shop. I can't wait till they arrive and we can stick them all over the place! 

We've also updated our blog 'about us' page and have started to update our Etsy/Storenvy/Society6 shops which is nice. My camera is away getting fixed from the lens breaking on our holiday (thanks to a very kind Dad who came to the rescue!), so we're hoping to reshoot our stock with the new packaging and all that good stuff as soon as I get it back. With our new website very close to launching, we've got a few final things that need tidied up to make it look as sharp as possible :) Exciting times, huh!

Oh! I'm hoping to be sorting out our DIY posts so they land on a Monday again too. They got jumbled up to different days when we went away and it's starting to do my head in. Monday or Thursday? Which day would you rather see our DIYs go live?
We'd love to hear what you think :)

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Edinburgh Festival Adventures!

We adore Edinburgh during the Festival. For 3 weeks of the year, our little city is crammed full of interesting people showing off their spectacular talents and anything can happen at any time! The Fringe Festival hosts thousands of comedy, theatre, dance and burlesque shows, the Book Festival welcomes writers and illustrators from all over the world and some of our greatest artists and makers participate in many craft and vintage markets throughout the town. Wish you were here? You bet!

This weekend we got the chance to go for a wander and take it all in. We went to see The Magnets who are a really awesome acapella group that harmonise and beatbox the songs we all know and love (you should check them out for sure!), hung around and people watched in our favourite venues and spent a fortune on books and cool stuff we found throughout our adventure!

I nabbed this beautiful book "Somewhere" from the Book Festival store, it's part of a series of books with equally awesome covers and I'm pretty certain their all going to end up on my bookshelf by the end of the month. The boat in the lightbulb is going to be sitting pride of place in our studio once we've redecorated (more on that soon enough!) I got it at the 2d3d arts & crafts market -- and I am very proud I got it home in one piece; it's so incredible :) Every weekend there is a cracking vintage and antiques market on at the Grassmarket and I'm really happy with these cute little forks and I scored a couple of vintage reels for my old school View-Master which was a real treat as they are hard to come by these days! One is of Paris and the other of the Queen's coronation. What more could a gal want?

If you get the chance to come up to Edinburgh, during the Festival in August is certainly the time to do it. The days are long and the nights are... well, pretty roudy, but absolutely amazing :D

Style Me Friday: Holiday Swag!

Usually our Style Me Friday posts show off lots of outfits and stylish treats I've discovered and fallen in love with online, but I thought I might mix it up a little and share some of the goodies I got on our American Adventure :)
Check out all the awesome stationery we collected!
It turns out that I'm going through quite a green phase at the moment. I'm a big fan of Sanrio so I was especially pleased when I found a shop that stocked a lot of the Keroppi goodies. I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of him than Hello Kitty, perhaps because he is harder to come by. Japanese stationery can be pretty exceptional - that woodland themed letter set has completely stolen my heart. I'm not sure if I should frame this or use it! I'm also pretty chuffed with my new Little Mermaid pen. Who doesn't want to write with a fin? The giant push pins were a gift from David when I was feeling a little under the weather. Nothing says true love like stationery, am I right? We also picked up some cute gaffa tape, which seems to be a huge trend in America right now (and you can count me in!) And a pot of some lovely gold Martha Stewart glitter; we can't get this over here so I was pretty over excited about getting that. Thankfully it survived our long flight home - though it would have been much more exciting to unpack if it had exploded :D

DIY: Felt Cat Brooch

This week I thought I would make a little lucky black cat brooch for my kitten loving bestie. I think he's going to bring a lot of joy when he arrives in the post with our new hey kitty cat card :D Hooray for feline friends!

To make one you'll need some black felt, black and white embroidery thread, a little bit of toy stuffing to make it plump and a brooch back. 

Start out by creating a template to follow; I used a pencil and piece of paper and drew my little cat at about 6cm wide by 4cm tall. It needs to be a large enough illustration so you can make it nice and plump :) 

Once you're ready, cut it out and use it as a template to cut out 2 cat head shapes in your black felt.

Stitch the brooch backing onto the back piece of your felt cat cutout. It's best to stitch it in the centre of the felt, slightly closer to the top of the head so it sits nicely when you put it on.

I created the eyes by stitching several lines together so they form a sort of circular shape as you can see on the above left image. It doest matter if these are a little messy so don't worry. Going in the opposite direction, do the stitch the same way above it and you'll get a cute round eye with no gaps. Perfect!

Once the eyes are done you can stitch the front and back together. Start by threading the embroidery through your felt beside one of the ears and hide the knot on the inside. That means it'll be nice and neat :) Then stitch all the way around until you've just a gap in the centre of the head. Add in little tufts of toy stuffing inside till it gets nice and plump, but not totally bulging. 

When you're happy with the shape, stitch the rest of the felt closed. To hide the final knot on the inside, thread the needle through the two pieces of felt and push it straight through the inside and out the other end. You should pull the tread tight enough so it the cat head pinches a little at the top.

Tie a knot at the end of the thread and smush out the head so it's not pinching anymore. The thread zips right up and gets hidden inside the cat head! Hooray :D

 

*Ta*Da*
Aint he the cutest? Now all we need to do is think up the name :)
Happy Making!

**Colossal GIVEAWAY Time**

OMG! Have you seen all the awesome stuff going into our colossal giveaway? It's worth over $70 - or £50 for all our lovely Brit readers - and we're certain it's going to make one of you extremely happy!

Our goodie bag includes:
Lets Grow Old Together tote bag (as seen in Vogue Bambini Magazine)
Lemon Squeezy felt brooch
Good Things Come To Those Who Make print
Puzzle Piece wooden brooch
2 of our keepsake cards: You're Pugging Brilliant & Hey Kitty Cat
A couple of our engraved pencils: Yeah, Write & Words Are For Nerds
And a custom illustrated Moleskine Wishbook!

Pretty rad collection, don't you think?

Wanna win it all? Now's your chance :D

Our giveaway is open world wide and will end on Friday 23rd August 2013. You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below... go on, you know you want to!

Good Luck....

**UPDATE**

This giveaway has now closed! The lucky winner is the awesome Robin - Congratulations :D Please check your email and let us know where to send the goodie bag too.

A massive thank you to everyone who entered - your support is massively appreicated!
Keep your eye out for another giveaway coming up really soon! xox

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh Snap!

This weeks inspiration ...